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Italy Property Market Update – July 2016

01/07/20160 Comment(s)

Are you looking to sell overseas property in Italy? Then we suggest reading this Italian Property Market Update for July 2016. A lot has happened in Italy over the last 12 months, most of it good.

Indeed, Italy is one of the most popular overseas property destinations in the world. The decline in the Italian property market, which began in 2008, following the global housing crisis, was finally arrested in 2014. Since then, the housing market in Italy has stabilised and has been on a strong growth trajectory.

The new Italian government under Matteo Renzi has done its bit to boost business sentiment in the country. Mr. Renzi is seen as a business friendly prime minister; and he has declared Italy open for foreign investment. The Italian economy has recovered lost ground despite the weakness of the Euro.

There is a lot of interest in Italy from international property hunters from the US, UK, China, Germany and elsewhere. As Rupert Fawcett, head of Italian department at Knight Frank, London explains, “We seem to be on a slight upward trend currently for Italy as an average across all the areas we cover. Stock market volatility often focuses investors’ minds on real estate as a more solid long term asset, and there is excellent value to be had in Italy currently, with prices down on average 30 percent since the crash in 2009, further improved by strong dollar exchange rates at the moment.”

“Enquiry levels have risen over the last year and there is a good supply of property for buyers to consider,” Mr. Fawcett added.
The Italian housing market today is very reasonably priced and there are a number of people of Italian origin living in the United States, Australia and Canada who are looking to buy a house in their “home country”. Sales have skyrocketed by 10 percent over the last 12 months. Favourable conditions such as affordable mortgage rates and banks that are friendly to property investors have helped as well.

Some of the areas in Italy that are hugely popular with foreign investors include Puglia, Lake Como and Tuscany. Some of the newer areas such as Dolomites and Le Marche are popular as well. Indeed, in Dolomites and Le Marche, the properties are 30% cheaper than in Tuscany.
Italy offers a range of dwellings at reasonable prices. If you are a bargain hunter you will find properties here that cost €150,000 and less. One of the big advantages of investing in Italy is that you can generate further income from by renting it out.

Investors would appreciate the favourable tax conditions in Italy. Buyers are required to put aside an extra 10% of the purchase price on a property to cover the costs of stamp duty, legal costs and agent fees, as well as a number of other small costs.

The cost of property ownership in Italy is pretty low and the country has one of the lowest property taxes in Europe. Also, if you have held your overseas property in Italy for 5 years or more, you won’t have to pay capital gains tax over it. There is no inheritance tax either.

There isn’t the sort of bureaucratic involvement in property purchases in Italy as seen in the rest of the world. If your home in Italy is your primary residence, you won’t have to pay a local tax called Tasi over it, which is charged for municipal services like road maintenance or street lighting and cleaning – unless you have a luxury residence. This has been made possible by the new regulations introduced by the Italian government under the Finanziaria 2016.

The Italian property market is on the up, and we expect a lot of property owners in Italy to get rich in 2016 and into the foreseeable future. If You need to sell overseas property in Italy fast contact the experts today.

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